The Great Gatsby p.77 chap.4

"Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arm. Her wan scornful mouth smiled and so I drew her up again, closer, this time to my face." -Nick Carraway

Making Extra Long Tittles And Digging Too Deeply For My Last Blogpost Of The Year

Loving pop-culture myself, I have lately noticed patterns in books and movies. I noticed that certain settings, either added subconsciously or consciously, mean certain things or transitions in a story. While reading the end of The Catcher In The Rye, I noticed a couple of settings representing a character changing, or lack thereof. At the beginning of The Catcher In The Rye, Holden is childish and sometimes acts without thinking. For the majority of the story, it is winter and it is cold and snowy. But at the end when Holden goes home, he realizes how much he really cares for his family, and is very thankful of them. While he is home his sister, Phoebe, gave him a kiss. She then stuck her hand out, and said, "it's raining. It's starting to rain." It is as if she is stating that a change will happen, even though she, as a character, doesn't know that these changes will happen. All Holden says is "I know." His saying "I know", is like he unknowingly understands and accepts that a change is occurring.

I think the signifigance of the snow to rain transition is that snow sticks on your skin. This gives you time to think about the snow being on your skin and the individual snowflakes. If it is snowing lightly, you can brush off the snowflakes you don't want on you. But when it snows harshly, you must be surrounded by coldness. This is similar to the way Holden is surrounded by "phonies", as he calls the people that he knows and finds very uniform. At first he can brush them off, but when he gets caught in a blizzard, he must acknowledge their existence and move on. He must learn to accept things he does not like. I feel like this is a message that J.D.Salinger is trying to send out about growing more and more mature. I believe the rain represents a cleansing. I think the rain allows him to realize that it is not worth making a big fuss about people that are "phonies". Holden realizes that he should focus on what really matters most for him, his family.

J.D.Salinger could have many different messages in his story about childhood and adulthood. But I think the two that are most prominent, are the idea of understanding and the idea of love and appreciation. Holden was, in the beginning, inconsistent with his opinions, because he didn't understand them. But as the weather changes, so does Holden. He learns to comprehend most of his feelings and realizes that you don't always have just ONE opinion. For example, he once hated his school roommate, but when he gets kicked out, Holden realizes that he will miss him too. Holden always loved his family, but after his adventure in New York City he seems to love them more. J.D.Salinger could be doing this in order to show the reader that sometimes you need to experience something bad to fully appreciate something good.

The Post War's Affect On The Teenage Mind

I think that I have some sort of mental block with the phrase "classic novels". Reading deeper is something I cannot do with books labeled "classic". I have always had this weird trouble with classic books. Like in the fourth grade, when I picked up The Hobbit. It was slow at first and I thought, 'it must get better, it must! Its a classic after all.' I ended up reading it, just to say I read it. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it but it was hard for me to enjoy it. But reading The Catcher In The Rye is nothing like that at all. I wasn't slaving away, forcing myself to read a dusty, boring old book. I found The Catcher In The Rye (by J.D.Salinger) to be like a movie in my hands and on paper. The setting, year 1945 in New York, is like a crisp black and white movie where everyone said words like "grand" and "swell". But the story is being narrated by a teenage boy, who's mind wanders and rants. Soon, I came to realize that Holden Caulfield is a social outcast(who is looked up to by some very famous serial killers... but that's another blog post).

"Everybody was on their way to the movies-The Paramount or The Astor or The Strand or The Capitol or one of those crazy places. Everybody was all dressed up, because it was Sunday, and that makes it worse. But the worst part was that you could tell that they all wanted to go to the movies. I couldn't stand looking at them."



That is a snippet (pg.150) of one of Holden's thoughts. This quote describes his world. He sees a world of religious, media-obsessed uniform families. He is so impacted by his surroundings. America at this time was just finishing with the war, and the general public was afraid of change. So there and then the American dream became unofficially defined as a white picket fence family. Typically a family of four; a housewife/mother figure, a successful working father, a daughter and a son. This family probably owns a house (with a white picket fence) and goes to church on Sunday. It seems that living in this world has affected his thinking patterns. I wondered would Holden be such an outcast if he lived in a less formatted world?

Holden often refers to "everybody", which makes me think that he feels like the media is forcing him to act and think a certain way. So he acts against it. There is a defined line between Holden and the world around him. And in his mind, you are either a part of "everybody" or you are Holden.

I think that no one is what they seem and everybody thinks differently then expected. And everyone changes depending on who is with you at a specific moment in time. So he probably would be slightly different if he lived in this less formatted world. He would probably be less alone. But no matter what, I think that Holden is destined to be an outcast.

Growing up is all about having your emotions distraught. It is about the uncertainty of finding yourself. And Holden finds himself not being what is expected of him, and has a hard time living up to expectations. He feels alone, which is a common feeling during the coming of age period of life. Holden is such a real person, and I totally love him.

[the power of suggestion forces you to click on this link]

Monster by Walter Dean Myers is a story of a hopeless teenager. As readers, we don't know much about Steve Harmon. We know that he is on trial for murder, he is presently in jail, he is black and sixteen years old. His story doesn't seem outstanding, he just seems to be a troubled youth. But while reading his movie version[screenplay] version of his reality, you see small scenes from his small life and his desperate thoughts: "I'm innocent." Soon I started to realize that this isn't just a story of guilty/innocent, it is a story of proving an under aged and unlucky boy's humanity.


So, as I do in a lot of my posts, I will find definitions of the word 'humanity' and similar words. Dictionary.Reference.com says humanity is "the quality of being humane; kindness; benevolence." merriam-webster.com says being humane is "marked by compassion, sympathy, or consideration for humans or animals". And if being 'humane' is simply showing compassion and generally being kind, everyone can be 'humane'. Everyone has their own small moments of kindness and small niceties. It seems very easy to prove someone is humane but then again, proving someone is innocent is something completely different...


The reader begins to see the world through Steve Harmon's eyes, and the world becomes an ugly place. It seems like everyone judges him because of the color of his skin. "Half of those jurors, no matter what they said when we questioned them when we picked the jury, believed you were guilty the moment they laid eyes on you. You're young, you're Black, and you're on trial. What else do they need to know?" says O'Brien, Steve's defense attorney. In response, Steve says something very ,very interesting. He says "I thought you're supposed to be innocent until you're proven guilty?" And he brings up a very good point. Everyone is looking at him, and just because he is on trial, he is judged. Just because he is young, he is judged. Just because he is Black, he is judged. As a youth, he must already be slightly insecure and this must be really shaking him up(it would shake me up).
The prosecutor called Steve a "monster", causing him to feel uncomfortable. He is questioning himself. And I think that the power of suggestion is acting up. When people call him things, I think he believes them. I think he is slowly giving up hope on his innocence. But I'm not done with the book yet. So, I'm left thinking... Do you think that he will become a monster if he is called a monster? Do you think that the jurors will be humane, and judge him solely on the evidence?

Extremely Sad and Incredibly Beautiful

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer was a small book about life and death, love and war, and gain and loss. It was very beautiful but granted, very sad. When reflecting upon what I was going to write about, I realize how increasingly beautiful something becomes when it is heartbreaking. But does sadness in literature always make a good story? It's not the large topics in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that really hit home, rather, it's the small moments of life before the mournful moments of death.

Oskar's, the narrator's, father died in 911. Oskar's grandfather's family died in the bombing of his home town. Both Oskar and the grandfather character, Thomas, are in between life and death. Once Thomas said "life is scarier than death". I always found this concept very interesting. Every since I first heard Mystery Jets' song Dreaming of Another World (Side note: I have written about the Mystery Jets before. I'm very sorry if it is getting stale and if you think I am a broken record for only talking about this one song, from this one band. Please forgive.) There is a lyric that reads "to live or to die, the riddle without a clue". After hearing this, I kept thinking about how death compares to life? Honestly, to me living outweighed death every time. But nearly all of the characters in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close found living a dreaded chore. This is because all the characters believe that life is scarier than death. They have lost many family members to political violence. Even Oskar, no, especially Oskar feels that wavering between life or death is a legitimate choice. “Everything that’s born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they’re all on fire, and we’re all trapped”, says he. He feels just as figuratively trapped as Thomas, the grandfather, and just as physically trapped as Thomas, his father.

In the flashback part of the story, Thomas, the grandfather, remembers the first time he "made love". (Side thoughts: He uses that term, "making love", that always bothered me. What is the difference between having sex, and making love? Nothing, it is two different words with the same definition. Like joy and happiness, cry and sob.) He remembers how much he loved her, and how she asked for them to "make love". And he remembers her wincing. When he asks her if anything is wrong, she says no. He asks her why she winced, and she said because it hurt. The next week or so, she died in the bombing. She was pregnant. To me, this is the definition of love: desire and pain.

To expand, can you live your life without fear of losing everything? Thomas and Oskar cannot, they are scarred by the horrible events that unfold and take everything from them. They are paralized by this fear and it prevents them from fully living their lives. Thomas used to have a family, a loving girl, an upcoming child, and a lovely home. But all of these things were ripped out of his hands, leaving him unable to love and resettle.

I honestly don't know what to believe about life and death, love and war, and gain and loss. After reading this book, it seems that one has to overcome fear in order to move forward. I feel I have only become more puzzled about my beliefs after reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I have even been questioning my writing style. To make a story beautiful, does it need to be so unnecessarily sad?

Can anyone tell me....

My last blog post was about how Romeo and Juliet was a story of humanity, this post is about fate. How fate is a big subject in the movie, a bigger subject in the real life filming and an even bigger subject in the book.

I, like many, saw the movie before I read the play. I never thought that fate was a huge part of the story, in fact I never thought about fate at all. It's probably because I could never understand the scene right before Mercutio and Romeo go to the party, where they discuss their dreams and their premonitions. It doesn't seem like fate that Romeo and Juliet meet. It seems like a coincidence. Which brings up the question, what is a coincidence and what is fate?

During the filming of the movie, there were some coincidences as well. "The dramatic storm scene on the beach in which Mercutio dies was shot during a real hurricane." I feel like having a real storm made me think was fate in control of how the movie was shot? Was fate in control when Aldo Signoretti (hair/makeup guru on the set of R+J) was kidnapped and released after paying the $300 ransom? Is fate the decider of good things as well as the bad things?

The Romeo and Juliet text has more coincedences that cause the Montague boys to get to the party. For example, the person responsible for sending out the invitations cannot read, forcing him to ask Romeo to read it to him. So now Romeo knows of the gathering and has access to attending it. But in the movie, they just somehow get invitations and crash the party. I would see the subject of fate in the movie more if there were more coincidences like the one in the text(For example, the person responsible for sending out the invitations cannot read, forcing him to ask Romeo to read it to him.). But still confused with the exact meaning of the word 'FATE', I did some follow up research/thoughts:

Merriam-Webster- "an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition, or end"

I thought of one of my favorite movies, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. John Connor says "The future's not set. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves." Do you believe John or do you believe Merriam-Webster?
(Pardon my geek out- referencing a sci-fi movie and a dictionary in one question...)

End of the World Blogpost(just cuz)

*Spoilers: for the movie Titanic and Romeo+Juliet*
I lost my worksheet so I don't have a quote(but if I find the worksheet, I will write another post((Part two)) including my ideas with the new found quote in mind).

Remember in Romeo and Juliet, when Tybalt dies? Juliet's father says "We are born to die." This concept just makes me think and think about how human we are. How we can be so ignorant sometimes and almost always greedy. How we can be struck dead any moment.

I saw most of Titanic for the first time yesterday, and it reminded me of this quote; it reminded me of deconstruction and the ruin of greatness. And I know that the story is being told by Rose herself, but sometimes the whole Jack/Rose love seems just as unreal as the love between Romeo/Juliet. Especially the scene where they pretend that they are flying/being free while the sun is setting and Celine Dion sings the worlds cheesiest song. True love isn't shown in moments like that, if it is shown at all it is shown when Rose rescues Jack from death the first time. She is going down a corridor filled with water (above her head) holding an axe in one hand and swinging on ceiling pipes with another (monkey bar style), or when Jack realizes that he cannot stay afloat on the headboard with Rose after the ship had sunk, and he must float beside her. It is shown when Mr. Guginheim stayed behind on the ship to allow woman and children to survive, when he could have easily used his influence to get on a safe boat and survive. It is shown when an old couple lay together, side by side, as water floods into their rooms. It is shown when a mother and her two children are trapped inside, so they lay down and she tells a beautiful tale. It is shown when one life boat returns to save the souls that have already passed on, and it is shown when the men on the life boat realise they were too late. This love that they show, is setting an example of the greatness of humans. The Selflessness that they express, is so beautiful.

This movie reminded me that everything that comes together will fall apart. And as centuries pass, I won't be anything more than a word in a history book, if at all. And all of my possesions won't be anything more than junk. Junk that turns into Garbage. It reminds me that my small troubles and my small worries mean nothing in the context of the world or even the universe. And my bed around me will become old and decaying like the titanic around the 2,223 people on that boat. And we won't be anything besides a once living civilization, like dodo birds or dinosaurs.

Once I realized this, I had come back to the world we live in. A world with wars and a world with greed. People do not understand that it won't matter in the end, when we are fossils in the ground, who had the most riches or who was in the most control of others. People don't realize that paper decays, meaning money will decay. Power will decay, and everything falls apart.

Once I realized this, I compared our world to that of Romeo and Juliet. And we have the same problems, problems of greed and problems of power. I realize that this could be the message Shakespeare was sending out. And he could not have been smarter for writing this message in the form of a love story. For people would be able to find even more sadness in it. Noone would rather watch a sad story of how the world is going to end one day and that "frays" between you and your enemy will not matter in the context of the whole, than a love story with the same message.

A Shakespeare Related Post....

It's a bad sign (I think) when your favorite part of a book is the end. It has only happened to me twice; while reading Youth in Revolt and It's Kind of a Funny Story. The last page or so of It's Kind of a Funny Story (by Ned Vizzini) was one of the most beautiful things I have read (and it really inspired me to run free and really live life), but the beginning is just so sad and depressing and it was rubbing off on me. It makes me think a lot about the title of Shakespeare's play All's Well That Ends Well. I honestly have never READ it, but I find the title a piece of art in itself that we can deconstruct and think about if it is relative. Does a bad beginning paired with a great ending, make the bad beginning so much better?

I would say it is a true statement for books and movies because they are not as serious or real as current world events. Reading a book or watching a movie cannot affect the masses negatively in the same way that a war or a natural disaster can. When people are severely hurt from an experience, a happy ending isn't going to erase the unhappy event in its entirety. It can only give hope for repairing the world. In real life happy endings don't always follow disastrous events.

Interpretations...

Okay, so lately i have been blabbering on and on about THE BLACK KEYS. I have been exploring their varied sound over their past albums and one song they did really struck me. In the album ATTACK & RELEASE they wrote a song(REMEMBER WHEN) and played it two different ways.
Here is side A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbVcIjOqY5w
Here is side B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuwctcgDTxI&feature=related
Playing one song twice with two different rhythms is something I've never seen done before! This makes me think about how much the songs meaning can change by just a change in rhythm. I guess its like in poems, the speaker/line breaks have so much to do when reading a poem.

My favorite version is Side B, because it (to me) seems like the lines "Sweet things, yeah sweet things" is accentuated more giving the song more meaning to me as the listener.

I love the idea of writing one thing multiple ways... It reminds me of our poetry writing process(one idea: four ways).

Tell me which side you like better, and why.
thanks!

MENTOR TEXTS

First of, everyone blog is so amazing, but having to chose:

http://epiceyebrows.blogspot.com/2010/12/jumpor-burn.html
Molly Smith, or as I like to call her, the master of all blogs short and meaningful. Jump or Burn is definitely one of my favorite blog posts(EVER)! Molly has mastered the art of posting meaningful entries that leave you thinking. Almost always, my blog posts drone on and on and I ramble and my feelings are scattered all over the place! Molly is definitely a writer I admire for her bluntness, for she says what needs to be said.

http://eveningswithdrfutterman.blogspot.com/2010/11/allure-of-pictures-and-printed-word.html
Annie Futterman, or the master of her own voice. Allure of Pictures and Printed Words is a post that shook me deeply. Annie is totally a unique writer, who always adds her own voice to everything she writes. She writes with such strong metaphors and such strong feelings, it inspires me! Her writing style, whatever it is exactly, makes me feel like I am talking to her about the book-not just reading a blog-. Overtime, I have slowly been developing my own voice and wish to have such a strong voice as Annie's in the future.

http://nat-ha-lay.blogspot.com/2010/11/magical-mistakes.html#comments
Nathalie Pages, or THE-BEST-at-getting-her-point-across Supergirl. Her posts always get her point across, and even if she doesn't read(Magical Mistakes) she always has deep points and ground breaking ideas that shatter boundaries. Nathalie is totally in control of her thoughts(or at least that's what her writing leads me to believe), where as sometimes I just don't know what to think-or how to conclude a thought. Nathalie is such a strong/mature writer that I always look up to. I hope in the future to be able to master my thoughts and to be able to fully conclude an idea.

There are a million great blogs out there, special kudos to Ben Futterman's blog , Pia's blog , and Sammy's blog for always(ALWAYS) giving me fruit for thought and inspiration.
love

"When the time comes to leave, just walk away quietly and don't make a fuss" -Banksy

By BANKSY
found in Southbank, London

Untittled

White and clean
The dress beckons
Do I want to try you on?
Yes, I reckon

You look so pretty
Ironed flat
You fit me like a glove
How about that?

Red and shiny
You glisten from afar
I wish to be a part of you
Your contrast on the tar

When I spare the dime
You laugh and say
"We have have no time,
I must go away"

I smiled
And curtsied
We said our good byes
I reached a hand out to say
"I wish I could fly"

I know what your thinking,
And don't you fret
I think of the balloon everyday, but yet
I still don't miss it
For I know
Everything has its time to go

And The Place Was Water...

Paean to Place by Lorine Niedecker

And the place

was water

Fish

fowl

flood

Water lily mud

My life

in the leaves and on water

My mother and I

born

in swale and swamp and sworn

to water

My father

thru marsh fog

sculled down

from high ground

saw her face

at the organ

bore the weight of lake water

and the cold—

he seined for carp to be sold

that their daughter

might go high

on land

to learn

Saw his wife turn

deaf

and away

She

who knew boats

and ropes

no longer played

She helped him string out nets

for tarring

And she could shoot

He was cool

to the man

who stole his minnows

by night and next day offered

to sell them back

He brought in a sack

of dandelion greens

if no flood

No oranges—none at hand

No marsh marigold

where the water rose

He kept us afloat

I mourn her not hearing canvasbacks

their blast-off rise

from the water

Not hearing sora

rails’s sweet

spoon-tapped waterglass-

descending scale-

tear-drop-tittle

Did she giggle

as a girl?

His skiff skimmed

the coiled celery now gone

from these streams

due to carp

He knew duckweed

fall-migrates

toward Mud Lake bottom

Knew what lay

under leaf decay

and on pickerel weeds

before summer hum

To be counted on:

new leaves

new dead

leaves

He could not

—like water bugs—

stride surface tension

He netted

loneliness

As to his bright new car

my mother—her house

next his—averred:

A hummingbird

can’t haul

Anchored here

in the rise and sink

of life—

middle years’ nights

he sat

beside his shoes

rocking his chair

Roped not “looped

in the loop

of her hair”

I grew in green

slide and slant

of shore and shade

Child-time—wade

thru weeds

Maples to swing from

Pewee-glissando

sublime

slime-

song

Grew riding the river

Books

at home-pier

Shelley could steer

as he read

I was the solitary plover

a pencil

for a wing-bone

From the secret notes

I must tilt

upon the pressure

execute and adjust

In us sea-air rhythm

“We live by the urgent wave

of the verse”

Seven year molt

for the solitary bird

and so young

Seven years the one

dress

for town once a week

One for home

faded blue-striped

as she piped

her cry

Dancing grounds

my people had none

woodcocks had—

backland-

air around

Solemnities

such as what flower

to take

to grandfather’s grave

unless

water lilies—

he who’d bowed his head

to grass as he mowed

Iris now grows

on fill

for the two

and for him

where they lie

How much less am I

in the dark than they?

Effort lay in us

before religions

at pond bottom

All things move toward

the light

except those

that freely work down

to oceans’ black depths

In us an impulse tests

the unknown

River rising—flood

Now melt and leave home

Return—broom wet

naturally wet

Under

soak-heavy rug

water bugs hatched—

no snake in the house

Where were they?—

she

who knew how to clean up

after floods

he who bailed boats, houses

Water endows us

with buckled floors

You with sea water running

in your veins sit down in water

Expect the long-stemmed blue

speedwell to renew

itself

O my floating life

Do not save love

for things

Throw things

to the flood

ruined

by the flood

Leave the new unbought—

all one in the end—

water

I possessed

the high word:

The boy my friend

played his violin

in the great hall

On this stream

my moonnight memory

washed of hardships

maneuvers barges

thru the mouth

of the river

They fished in beauty

It was not always so

In Fishes

red Mars

rising

rides the sloughs and sluices

of my mind

with the persons

on the edge


*

Wow, i never knew how long it was. This poem has been my favorite since last year, but I had believed it was the first part(red) only. I didn't know of the rest of the poem, so I feel it is only right to unpack the first part.

Whenever I read this poem, I am thrown into this world of water and wet life. I love the beginning line: And the place was water. This line is kind of a metaphor and kind of a hyperbole. It creates an image that sets the mood and setting for the rest of the poem. It's a very narrative poem, telling a story the whole time. It tells the story of the mother, the father, and the narrator- and how they all got there. At times, it can be very explicitly explained, while at others it is not explained at all. The rhyme scheme is not regular, but when it occurs it creates an off rhythm and it skips a line(often). After reading the poem a couple of times, it sounds like a list. The list and the rhythm makes me read the poem, like its a song. A lot of lines have alliteration in it, like: My mother and I born in swale and swamp and sworn. This also adds to the sing-song-y quality of the poem. Saw his wife turn deaf and away She who knew boats and ropes no longer played. This line, was always a turning point for me in the poem. When the mother suffers from something horrible, it always changed the mood of the poem. For a once happy, song-like poem became weighty and sad to read.

The rhythm and the list-likeness, along with the actual content, make me believe that the narrator wanted us to just keep going, no matter the obstacle. Even if something horrible happens, like what happened to the narrator's mother((either depression or death)), life still goes on. Another possible idea is, always remember your history. Your background and family life is very important in the entirety of your life. Maybe, it is like "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger". Do the strongest people, come from the toughest background? I love this poem because of all of the different interpretations. But after I read the poem, I always feel stronger and enlightened. Coincidence?

Being strong and confident is such an important thing in life. If you never stand up for yourself, you could end up like the father in Back To The Future, who is a father of three children and still lets his high school bully boss him around. I know that sounds cheesy, but being confident is so important in the way people see you and you see yourself. Remember, life goes on during the good and the bad times. Stay confident in yourself, and people will confide in you.

Congratulate me....

*SPOILERS ALERT: Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt-reveals ending for the film*

Congratulate me, I have finally finished Youth In Revolt by C.D.Payne! Finishing such a large book inspired me to treat myself to my favorite Hitchcock, Shadow Of A Doubt(1943-
Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten and Macdonald Carey). While I was watching the special features, Alfred Hitchcock was responding to a question about why Teresa Wright's character turned against her uncle, who had committed a series of horrible crimes, yet she him loved dearly. He quoted Oscar Wilde; "...each man kills the thing he loves..."

This hit me, and changed my point of view on Youth In Revolt almost completely. Instead of hating Nick Twisp for doing the stupid things he does for love, I understand that we all end up harming the thing we love most; either as dramatically as Nick Twisp to his family or as lightly as over talking to your friends about your new favorite band and then they ended up hating them. This seems very human, it has happened to me so often, maybe this is the objective of the novel. Perhaps the author C.D.Payne made Nick Twisp do the awful things he does to his family, to show the reader how we as humans affect our surroundings. To show how we SHOULD respect the things we love. Or even maybe Payne made N.Twisp do awful things and to ruin his own life, to show how we should appreciate our lives. The story of Nick Twisp will always puzzle me, and I fear I will never be able to fully appreciate the novel.

Have you ever killed something you love(metaphorically)?

AFTER THOUGHTS-yet another interpretation of Oscar Wilde's brilliance:
"...each man kills the thing he loves..."
Perhaps, the man who loves this thing the most has-almost-permission to end it, or kill it so to speak...Only because he knows so much and loves it so...Your thoughts?

Yet another Youth In Revolt post...(inspired by molly's post about characters: http://epiceyebrows.blogspot.com/2010/12/looking-into-mirror.html)

Have you ever seen someone in a crowd, and wanted to get to know them? Well that happens to me all the time, but now that I am reading Youth In Revolt I start thinking of everyone I don't know fully as a dirty, horrible liar. This assumption is totally unfair to those who are actually sweet and honestly nice. This makes me wonder if its better to know someone fully, with their flaws and all, or to barely know someone.

I think it totally depends on the person you get to know. Knowing someone you admire or enjoy spending time with very well, is great. Then you can talk deeply, and have inside jokes etc. Knowing someone very well and caring for them go hand and hand. But knowing someone you despise or hate very well, can be the worst thing possible. You will probably end up hating them, and quite possibly hating yourself.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten very far in Youth In Revolt. Something always repulsed me about Nick Twisp, maybe its because the story gets TOO deep into his head. Since I dislike Nick Twisp, I don't want to know EVERYTHING that goes through his head.

This is what makes or breaks a story; the characters. If you really like a character, then reading will be a pleasure. But if you dislike a character, you will probably dislike reading just as much.

I often want to meet actors or musicians that seem super awesome. But you never know if you would get along with them. Sometimes ones expectations about a person, are not at all what that person is like.

Have you ever had this experience? Explain

When Should We Stop Watching, And Start Living?

I know this is sinful, but I haven't read at all this week! The largeness of Youth In Revolt by C.D.Payne intimidates me, and causes me to run away from the book instead of reading it. But this weekend I was thinking about it while my family and I were driving to see my cousins. I have come up with a question; When Should We Stop Watching, And Start Living? My question breaks down into these other questions: How does one view and interact with the world? What is considered 'living'?

I come from a family of watchers. My mom is a photographer and has a certain view of the world and shes not afraid to express how much she likes or dislikes something. She often shows me what a great photograph would look like, and describes why. I have odd memories of my mom and I moving slowing into the shadow covered park, taking in each and every small blade of grass and making it a pretend photograph and framing it in between our fingers. I still do that now, except I do it in my head. I look at the world through a specific lens; one that automatically creates a story, composition, contrast, and beauty in the world around me. This does not nessicarily make me a "good" artist, instead an avid viewer of this world. This also causes me to think too much, and psychoanalyze things. If I am brought up with an opportunity, I am likely to think too much, and then the moment passes when I have reached a decision.

Nick Twisp, the narrator of the story, is also a watcher. He never really speaks back, or does anything daring, or hangs out with new people. But when he meets Sheeni, he suddenly changes. She dares Nick to be "bad", and start living. But what is considered living? I would say doing what you love. So if he doesn't enjoy being bad, why should he? Why should we change for someone else? Should we stop being ourselves, and become the person our significant other wants us to be? I believe not. We are who we are, and I'm not sure if Nick Twisp is doing the right thing. If someone doesn't like you for who you are, you shouldn't change.

What if watching is your form of living, like me and Nick?

Then I would say keep watching.

Weekly Music Artist: SUMMER CAMP

So, SUMMER CAMP is just one of those awesome/super-duper/kick-butt/epic/so good/life changing bands that is not as known as they should be. They are an independent band based in the UK.
They are known for Ghost Train, Round the Moon, and Christmas Wrapping(waitress cover). But my favorite is Why Don't You Stay. All music found on their Myspace page. Fortunetly, they are now on iTunes!! I'm pretty excited about this, considering that they were not on till quite recently.
Here they are:

They are also known for their use of photographs from the 70s. Like this one:

"Every Revolution Needs A Leader"

I am currently enjoying the extremely dirty thoughts and words of Nick Twisp, the narrator of Youth In Revolt by C.D.Payne. Nick Twisp is a 14 year old boy, living in California, trying to loose his virginity and impress his girl. To impress, he must act as devilishly rebellious as possible. He burns cars and scares his parents, he lies uncontrollably and scares his friend's parents, he runs away and occasionally does drugs. While reading this story, I started questioning what is rebellion and is rebelling the only way to truly live?

According to Google, rebellion is "refusal to accept some authority or code or convention". According to the Canadian band, Arcade Fire's song Rebellion(Lies) being rebellious is doing things that aren't good, then lying and keeping it from others. According to BBC, rebellion is " often symbolic. They want to look grown up and impress their friends." To further explain, BBC explains taking risks: " teenagers have well-developed emotions and feelings but have still not acquired the ability to think things through."

If you never act out, and never do anything against the rules for all of your life, are you wasting your life?

I believe that wasting your life, has nothing to do with your level of rebelliousness, but your level of happiness.

Are you happy doing what you are doing?

Weekly Music Artist: DION AND THE BELMONTS

I'm sorry I have not been keeping up with posting a new artist every week, but here goes.

This week, I'm digging into music from my favorite time: the 50's.

Dion and The Belmont's are a band made famous for their great doo-wop sound. Dion had grown up in the streets of the Bronx and started singing with great influence from R&B, blues, doo-wop, and rock n' roll. They were famous in the late 50's early 60's. Their hits include I Wonder Why, Teenager in Love, and The Wanderer. Dion was adapted into the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

My personal female icons

As you all know I recently cut my hair very short. Devon asked what inspired me to do such a thing, and I thought it would be a great topic for a blog post. My main reason for cutting my hair off, was in search of adventure. I am reading Paper Towns by John Green. It has to be the most life changing/view changing book I have read so far this year. It is an adventure/mystery story about the most wonderful, adventurous girl named Margo. She has become my favorite female icon because of her great adventurous side. She inspired me to be as adventurous as possible and to create a top five countdown kind of thing of female icons that I look up to.

Isabelle's Top Five Female Icons Countdown!
5)Coco Chanel-Because she stood up for girls when all we had to wear was poof dresses and corsets. She's brave.
4)Myrna Loy-Because she was always graceful and all for equal human rights. She's perfect.
3)Becky from the 1993 movie Whats Eating Gilbert Grape?-Because she was my adventuring queen and she's so accepting and real. She is effortless.
2)The girl in the song 'Dreaming of Another World' by Mystery Jet's-Because this girl seems to be a rule follower... then she is told to 'scrape the sky, and do something that would make her mother cry' She's adventurous. lyrics here
1)Margo Roth Spiegelman-Because she's human.

So to sum up my feelings about really awesome girls that I aspire to be like, read the book Paper Towns by John Green. Through all my adventure-longing encounters in books, music and popular culture, I realize what makes a great person is summed up in a quote from Paper Towns:
"And all at once I knew how Margo Roth Spiegelman felt when she wasn't being Margo Roth Spiegelman: she felt empty.She felt the unscalable wall surrounding her. I thought of her asleep on the carpet with only that jagged sliver of sky above her. Maybe Margo felt comfortable there because Margo the person lived like that all the time: in an abandoned room with blocked-out windows, the only light pouring in through holes in the roof. Yes. The fundamental mistake I had always made--and that she had, in fairness, always led me to make--was this:Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl."
--John Green(Paper Towns)
(She has to be real.)

To sum up my feelings about this new adventure seeking part of me, listen to the Mystery Jets, because they will tell you life without adventure is kind of boring.
"They don't teach these things at school
They just lay down the rules which are there for you to break"
--Mystery Jets(Flakes)
(Links to the songs: Flakes
Dreaming of Another World)

Okay so i
need
need
need
need your feedback!
please comment with the following things:
1.top 5 countdown with your female icons(if your a guy, you can do male icon if you want)
2.what inspires you to do what you do/be who you are/believe what you do?

thanks

the world kind of sucks...

I am a huge fan of graphic novels, so reading Persepolis and Persepolis 2 was a great joy. This story is a memoir of the author Marjane Satrapi. The story takes place in Iran during the '80s, while the revolution took place. It was a religious movement, where the religious fundamentalist's took over the government and enforced rules upon the population. These rules were religiously based, and I think, are unfair. These rules affected the lives of everyone, everywhere. Woman had started to wear head scarfs, woman and men were forever separated, you couldnt be seen on a date with a man unless you were married, you couldn't wear any formfitting clothing, you couldnt drink or wear makeup, and so much more. In Iran, people could be severly punished for breaking these rules. You could be put in jail, tortured or killed for such a small thing as wearing make-up.

The book is basically documenting one woman's view of all of these changes, and how her family deals with it. With all the sad discrimination and sexism, Marjane Satrapi is the reason I kept reading. She is such a sweet and innocent character, just trying to be free and get her rights back.

So if you were in Majane's shoes, how would you feel about not being able to walk around wearing makeup without fear of death?